I'm playing a very similar elf deck myself, but it has performed so badly that, in desperation, I splashed white for Abzan Charms and the potential to drop in some white answer or even some Siege Rhinos to help life totals along.

I am curious of three things:

(1) how do you play the deck (do you drop elves, sit back, and drop shamans in hopes of doing enough bites to kill, or do you wait and swing only when you have Foul-Tongue Shriek)? With so many unthreatening 1/1 and 2/2 weenies on the board, no one fears elf combat, and they serve as lemmings to the slaughter.

(2) do you win against decks with lifegain? they always seem to win the race and it becomes an Achilles heal to my deck, unless I start dropping Tainted Remedys.

(3) is Den Protector really helpful? they're the only morph creature, so opponents know when you're trying to use it and will often kill it before you can use it, otherwise it's a 5-mana Dirty with a 3/2 body. If you're getting a shaman every time, it's basically just a Gravedigger with 1 more power. In that case, Palace Siege could be fun!

thewyzman,

I will admit the deck matches up pretty badly against Abzan. Which is why I run Infinite Obliteration in the sideboard, in hopes to remove the large threats before they become a problem.

Typically, we attempt to attack early before the opponent can build up a board state. As for attacking late game, we have a significant a threats that can destroy a blocker, such as Titanic Growth or Might of the Masses. Foul-Tongue Shriek is great game finisher when attacking all out, becoming effectively another Shaman of the Pack.

I haven't ran into a life gain deck, that has been able to out race my deck with exception of those pesky Abzan decks.

As for Den Protector, you are right it is basically just a 5 mana recursion spell, but it also provides a distraction for them to waste their removal on.

I like your idea of Infinite Obliteration to deal with the creatures you just can't deal with any other way.

Like you, I really wanted to play Chord of Calling in My Pointy-Eared Dudes!. Now that it is gone from Standard, what should the plan be for regaining consistency in the deck (particularly with being able to find your sideboard answers)?

Shadows of the Past helps us scry for more dudes when ours get dead. It's no tutor by any means, but it's decent.